Necessity definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (28)

American Heritage Dictionary (7)

noun The condition or quality of being necessary.
noun Something necessary: The necessities of life include food, clothing, and shelter.
noun Something dictated by invariable physical laws.

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Century Dictionary (18)

The condition or quality of being necessary or needful; the mode of being or of truth of that which is necessary; the impossibility of the contrary; the absolute character of a determination or limitation which is not merely without exception, but which would be so in any possible state of things; absolute constraint. But who can turne the stream of destinee, Or breake the chayne of strong necessitee, Which fast is tyde to Joves eternall seat? Spenser, F Q., I. v. 25. He must die, as others; And I must lose him: 'tis necessity. Fletcher, Valentinian, iii. 3 That strength joyn'd with religion, abus'd and pretended to ambitious ends, must of necessity breed the heaviest and most quelling tyranny. Milton, Church-Government, ii. 3.
As applied to the human will, the opposite of liberty. Compulsion physical or, more generally, moral; a stress upon the mind causing a person to do something unwillingly or with extreme reluctance: as, to make a virtue of necessity. Thenne of necessite They them withdrewe, and towards the Citee They toke the way. Generydes (E. E. T. S.), l. 2552. Then take his Head; Yet never say that I Issu'd this Warrant, but Necessity. J. Beaumont, Psyche, iii. 194. Necessity … was the argument of tyrants, it was the creed of slaves. Pitt, On the India Bill, Nov. 18, 1783. And the great powers we serve themselves may be Slaves of a tyrannous Necessity. M. Arnold, Mycerinus.
In philosophy, the inevitable determination of the human will by a motive or other cause. This is only a special use of the word in the free-will dispute. In philosophy generally, by the necessity of a cognition is properly meant a cognized necessity, or universality in reference to possible states of things; although some writers use the word to denote a constraint upon the power of thought. Will and reason (reason also is choice). Useless and vain, of freedom both despoil'd, Made passive both, had served necessity, Not me. Milton, P. L., iii. 110. Wherever thought is wholly wanting, or the power to act or forbear according to the direction of thought, there necessity takes place. Locke, Human Understanding, II. xxi. 13.

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Therefore, it cannot be established that necessity qua necessity is an inherently positive quality of existence. — Debunking Christianity
How ironic that the party which now brings us perilously close to such a necessity is the very party that has long stood resoundingly beside the NRA and their staunch opposition to any form of gun control. — Original Signal - Transmitting Digg
Any tax on a necessity is a direct tax, as opposed to an excise — Conservapedia - Recent changes [en]
Another option that is nice to have but not a necessity is an interactive program.
How great a necessity is there of continual application to the fountain, of dwelling beside it, that you may wash daily! — The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

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need · importance · advantage · consequence · principle · difficulty · want · habit · condition · reality · demand

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

Middle English necessite, from Old French, from Latin necessitās, from necesse, necessary; see necessary.

Century Dictionary (1)

Early modern English also necessitie, necessitee; from Middle English necessite, necessitee, nessesite, from Old French necessite, French nécessité Spanish necesidad = Pg, necessitade = Italian necessità, from Latin necessita (t-) s, unavoidableness, compulsion, exigency, necessity, from necesse, unavoidable, inevitable: see necessary.

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